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Rather   Listen
adverb
Rather  adv.  
1.
Earlier; sooner; before. (Obs.) "Thou shalt, quod he, be rather false than I." "A good mean to come the rather to grace."
2.
More readily or willingly; preferably. "My soul chooseth... death rather than my life."
3.
On the other hand; to the contrary of what was said or suggested; instead. "Was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse."
4.
Of two alternatives conceived of, this by preference to, or as more likely than, the other; somewhat. "He sought throughout the world, but sought in vain, And nowhere finding, rather feared her slain."
5.
More properly; more correctly speaking. "This is an art Which does mend nature, change it rather, but The art itself is nature."
6.
In some degree; somewhat; as, the day is rather warm; the house is rather damp.
The rather, the more so; especially; for better reason; for particular cause. "You are come to me in happy time, The rather for I have some sport in hand."
Had rather, or Would rather, prefer to; prefers to; as, he had rather, or would rather go than stay. "I had rather speak five words with my understanding than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." See Had rather, under Had.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Rather" Quotes from Famous Books



... of holiness or of warlike renown. It is probable that the mystery plays were not without influence; for the personal name was not always a fixed quantity, and many of the names mentioned in the preceding paragraph may have been acquired rather on the medieval stage than ...
— The Romance of Names • Ernest Weekley

... malice; even his momentary irritation at finding himself, as he considered, "left in the lurch," lasted but a few moments after his return to the hall. Darsie would rather have had it last a little longer. To see an unclouded face, to catch the echo of merry laughter within ten minutes of a humiliating confession, seemed but another instance of instability of character. It seemed ...
— A College Girl • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... then, she does not understand what dignity is? Indeed she did not understand Lord Byron at all. With me he was unaffected, amiable, and natural. The hours passed in his society I look upon as the brightest of my life, and even now I think of them with an effusion of gratitude and admiration, rather ...
— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli

... de Medicis and Monsieur were beloved by the populace. It was not perhaps that either the one or the other was individually the object of popular affection, but each represented the interests of an irritated opposition; and both sought to undermine the existing Government, or rather the authority of Richelieu, who was rapidly absorbing all power, and striving to bend the necks of nobles, citizens, and ...
— The Life of Marie de Medicis, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Julia Pardoe

... himself became impatient; but the month passed away, and yet it did not happen. In the middle of February, however, she was safely delivered of a Prince. During the following April the child was presented to the Emperor.[73] He was rather big for his age, and had already begun to notice those ...
— Japanese Literature - Including Selections from Genji Monogatari and Classical - Poetry and Drama of Japan • Various

... but uneasily, and dreamed much; and when Mrs. Dempster woke him late in the morning he seemed ill at ease, and for a few minutes did not seem to realise exactly where he was. His first request rather ...
— Dracula's Guest • Bram Stoker

... warm day, some hours after sunrise. A man of rather gentlemanly appearance, well, though not handsomely dressed, is riding leisurely along the public highway. He wears a broad-brimmed straw hat as a protection from the sun, and a linen duster somewhat soiled by the dust of travel. ...
— Elsie's Motherhood • Martha Finley

... "I had rather it were under our canvas, with a stiff breeze! The play of this ship is a lively foot, and a touching leech but, when, it comes to boats, a marine is nearly as good a ...
— The Water-Witch or, The Skimmer of the Seas • James Fenimore Cooper

... Curious, rather than frightened, I stepped over Musidora's grave, and hurried around to the locked gate. Two unsodded mounds were near the entrance. One was long, and one short. Stretched upon this last was something that moved slightly and cried again, yet more piteously, when I called to it. The ...
— When Grandmamma Was New - The Story of a Virginia Childhood • Marion Harland

... service, and the friendship which had grown up on the road, no doubt, made him an influential advocate with his chief. The general received me very kindly, and said that his action had been based on the supposition that I would prefer duty in Kentucky during the winter rather than make the rough journey over the mountains at that season. On my assuring him that my coming without waiting to communicate with him was because of my earnest request to the War Department for service ...
— Military Reminiscences of the Civil War V2 • Jacob Dolson Cox

... happened to be calling in Paris on an extremely influential personage in the Government, and I met a very interesting man in his house. This individual was not precisely a detective but was a sort of superintendent of a whole regiment of political detectives—a rather powerful position in its own way. I was prompted by curiosity to seize the opportunity of conversation with him. And as he had not come as a visitor but as a subordinate official bringing a special report, and as ...
— The Brothers Karamazov • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... me two liberties, my dear sir," said Turnbull at last: "The first is to break open this box and light one of Mr. Wilkinson's excellent cigars, which will, I am sure, assist my meditations; the second is to offer a penny for your thoughts; or rather to convulse the already complex finances of this island by betting a penny ...
— The Ball and The Cross • G.K. Chesterton

... editions, the Bombay edition correctly includes this sloka, or rather half sloka, within the 17th, making the 17th a triplet instead of a couplet. For the well-known word Dhishthitas however, the Bombay text ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... enemy and the enemy of my house. Rather would I give him ten thousand talents of silver than do him ...
— THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS VOLUME IV BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS - FROM THE EXODUS TO THE DEATH OF MOSES • BY LOUIS GINZBERG

... cattle intended for the troops; nor did any officer dare oppose this "St. Bartholomew of the oxen," as Bougainville calls it. "Their paradise is to be drunk," says the young officer. Their paradise was rather a hell; for sometimes, when mad with brandy, they grappled and tore each other with their teeth like wolves. They were continually "making medicine," that is, consulting the Manitou, to whom they hung up offerings, ...
— Montcalm and Wolfe • Francis Parkman

... the very primer stage of economic theory. Adam Smith is rather out of fashion nowadays, but there is still much in "The Wealth of Nations" which will repay our attention. No Socialist writer, not even Marx, has stated the fundamental principle of the antagonism between the employing and employed classes ...
— Socialism - A Summary and Interpretation of Socialist Principles • John Spargo

... This 'yes' was said rather mysteriously. And Lydia's subsequent behaviour was also mysterious. She took her hat off and stood with it in her hand, as if not knowing where to put it. Then she sat down, forgetting that she still wore her jacket. Reminded of this, she ...
— Thyrza • George Gissing

... that the priest sent for her to see him. He told her how wicked she was, and that, too, when she was to be the bride of the church; but she said the church had many, many brides, and she would rather be the bride of Giovanni; and that she loved red-cheeked babies better than beads, and songs were nicer than prayers. Should she sing him such a pretty, gay one she knew? And the priest could hardly keep from laughing at the bright-eyed, naughty, naughty Talila. But he said: ...
— Mae Madden • Mary Murdoch Mason

... strips of stonework in Anglo-Saxon masonry. They are generally of a single stage only, but sometimes of more, and are not carried up higher than the cornice, under which they often but not always finish with a slope. They appear as if intended rather to relieve the plain external surface of the wall than to strengthen it. Norman portals not unfrequently occur, formed in the thickness of a broad but shallow pilaster buttress, as at Iffley Church, Oxfordshire, and at Stoneleigh and Hampton-in-Arden ...
— The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, Elucidated by Question and Answer, 4th ed. • Matthew Holbeche Bloxam

... is its profile, rather carefully drawn at the top, to show the tulip and turkscap lily leaves. Underneath there is a plate of iron beaten into broad thin leaves, which gives the centre of the balcony a gradual sweep outwards, ...
— The Two Paths • John Ruskin

... letter to Colonel Malcolm, December 3, 1809, the Duke admits that the spoils of conquest were of a moral rather than of a material kind. "The battle of Talavera was certainly the hardest fought of modern days.... It is lamentable that, owing to the miserable inefficiency of the Spaniards, ... the glory of the action is the ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 2 • George Gordon Byron

... and on each side of it a vast staircase, of which the balustrades had originally been gilt. Then, too, there were many little nooks and round closets, and many larger and smaller rooms and passages, which appeared to be rather more modern; whilst the gateway itself stood without the garden walls upon the Forbury or open green, which belonged to the town, and where Dr. Valpy's boys played after school hours. The best part of the house was encompassed ...
— The Fairchild Family • Mary Martha Sherwood

... happened to say that if motherhood seemed so hard to a person like herself, whose husband and whose whole family were so mad with joy over the prospect of a baby, what on earth must it be to the poor girls who have every reason to hate it. And she looked at me rather oddly, and said: 'Ah, I know what that is!' Of course I guessed right away what she meant, and I said: 'Annie—not really!' And she said: 'Oh, yes, that was what started my illness. I had been so almost crazy—so blue and lonesome, and so sick with horror at the whole thing, that it all happened ...
— The Beloved Woman • Kathleen Norris

... their people could and would join with them, &c. But this paper being judged by the committee of this assembly to contain "peremptory and gross mistakes, unreasonable and impracticable proposals, and uncharitable and injurious reflections, tending rather to kindle contentions than compose divisions[247]," it never once got a hearing, but was thrown over the bar of that assembly. And yet notwithstanding all this, the three foresaid brethren being resolved to unite with them at any rate, gave in another ...
— Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) • John Howie

... as an attraction; that any one should be expected to sit here for an hour to listen to me or another upon a genius which speaks for itself. I was overruled by Mr. Lane. But it is all wrong, this desire to hear and hold opinions about art rather than to be moved by the art itself. I know twenty charlatans who will talk about art, but never lift their eyes to look at the pictures on the wall. I remember an Irish poet speaking about art a whole evening in a room hung round with pictures by Constable, Monet, and others, and he ...
— Imaginations and Reveries • (A.E.) George William Russell

... yourself (coupled, of course, with a real earnest strenuous endeavour to recover the lost tone of spirit) is, that you think and feel you can do. I do not in the least regard your change of course in going to Havre as any evidence of instability. But I rather hope it is likely that through such restlessness you will come to a far quieter frame of mind. The disturbed mind and affections, like the tossed sea, seldom calm without an intervening time of ...
— The Letters of Charles Dickens - Vol. 2 (of 3), 1857-1870 • Charles Dickens

... else were the last survivors of a colony of their kind in our plantation. It was not until twelve or fourteen years later that I discovered that it was even as I had conjectured. At a distance of about forty miles from my home, or rather from the home of my boyhood where I no longer lived, I found a snake that was new to me, the Philodryas scotti of naturalists, a not uncommon Argentine snake, and recognized it as the same species as the one found coiled up on my little sister's rug and presumably as my mysterious black ...
— Far Away and Long Ago • W. H. Hudson

... do not speak with us in the Jewish language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall." But the high official said to them, "Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? Is it not rather to the men who sit on the wall, who will suffer ...
— The Children's Bible • Henry A. Sherman

... may seem that the scenes in this book are overdrawn. Such, however, is not the fact. There was much of roughness in those days, and the author has continually found it necessary to tone down rather than to exaggerate in penning these scenes from ...
— The Boy Land Boomer - Dick Arbuckle's Adventures in Oklahoma • Ralph Bonehill

... higher Wisdom," of Nirv[a]na. The story begins with his previous births, in which also he was accumulating the Buddha qualities. And as the Mah[a]vastu was a standard work of a particular sect, or rather school, called the Mah[a]-sanghikas, it has thus preserved for us the theory of the Buddha as held outside the followers of the cannon, by those whose views developed, in after centuries, into the Mah[a]y[a]na or modern form of Buddhism ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various

... can be no question. So, it is clear, that with our insufficient incomes, our presence is a curse rather than a blessing ...
— The Lights and Shadows of Real Life • T.S. Arthur

... nothing. The night's as empty as a dream: he must hear him; he cannot help but hear him; and then—O Macaire, Macaire, come back to me. It's death, and it's death, and it's death. Red, red: a corpse. Macaire to kill, Macaire to die? I'd rather starve, I'd rather perish, than either: I'm not fit, I'm not fit for either! Why, how's this? I want to cry. (A stroke, and a groan from above.) God Almighty, one of them's gone! (He falls with his head on table, R. MACAIRE appears at the top of the stairs, descends, ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XV • Robert Louis Stevenson

... from my topsy-turvy Close, and, I reckon, rather true. Some are fine fellows: some, right scurvy: Most, a dash between the two. But it's a woman, old girl, that makes me Think more kindly of the race: And it's a woman, old girl, that shakes me When the ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... The cup of peradventure to the lees, For one dear instant disimmortalised In giving immortality! So dream the gods upon their listless thrones. Yet sometimes, when the votary appears, With death-affronting forehead and glad eyes, Too young, they rather muse, too frail thou art, And shall we rob some girl of saffron veil And nuptial garland for so slight a thing? And so to their incurious ...
— Artemis to Actaeon and Other Worlds • Edith Wharton

... of compositors is apt to be imperfectly appreciated by authors, because it rather interferes with what the author wishes to say, although it may often say something better. But there is no reason why the general reader should not thoroughly enjoy it. Certainly it ought to be more generously recognised ...
— Literary Blunders • Henry B. Wheatley

... autumn of that first cataclysmic year that Secretary Loring, traveling from Boston to the State capital on a mission for the Western Pacific, stopped over a train with Kent. After a rather dispiriting dinner in the deserted Mid-Continent cafe, and some plowing of the field of recollection in Kent's rooms in the Farquhar Building, they took the deserted street in the golden twilight to walk to ...
— The Grafters • Francis Lynde

... teacher to indicate the most important strategic points. Maps have been sparingly provided in this book, as the simple plans in Dodge's Bird's-eye View can easily be reproduced on the blackboard. In general, campaigns should be studied rather than battles. ...
— A Short History of the United States • Edward Channing

... and slow-spoken, but Isham, her step-father, was cook to the Gresham brothers, the beaux of the neighborhood, who kept bachelor's hall. His mother had been their Mammy—hence his inherited privilege of knowing rather more about his young masters than they ...
— Dishes & Beverages of the Old South • Martha McCulloch Williams

... "It was rather pretty," said Cresswell. "He'd something to make up for, though, after making such an ass of himself in the second round. By- the-way, was that last shot ...
— Follow My leader - The Boys of Templeton • Talbot Baines Reed

... was lecturing to us on Wordsworth, and reading examples of different styles and metres, he finished a rather sentimental ...
— People of the Whirlpool • Mabel Osgood Wright

... middle of the fourth century, the works produced were chiefly renderings of detached sutras.[759] Few treatises classified as Vinaya or Abhidharma were translated and those few are mostly extracts or compilations. The sutras belong to both the Hina and Mahayana. The earliest extant translation or rather compilation, the Sutra of Forty-two sections, belongs to the former school, and so do the majority of the translations made by An-Shih-Kao (148-170 A.D.), but from the second century onwards the Prajnaparamita and Amitabha Sutras make their appearance.[760] Many of the ...
— Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Charles Eliot

... whom I saw much at this time before we started to ride westward, and that, of course, was the Lady Hilda. She, I found, was going to Fernlea, rather that she might be one of the ladies who should attend the bride whom it was hoped that the king would bring home, than as going to remain with Quendritha, and I must say that I was glad thereof. With her and her father I rode many ...
— A King's Comrade - A Story of Old Hereford • Charles Whistler

... undoubtedly fall—taking to the noblest of games at an early age. Golf, like measles, should be caught young, for, if postponed to riper years, the results may be serious. Let me tell you the story of Mortimer Sturgis, which illustrates what I mean rather aptly. ...
— The Clicking of Cuthbert • P. G. Wodehouse

... Chinese Pictorial Art (Shanghai, 2nd ed., 1918), pp. 159 ff.; the whole of c. VI of this book on the art which flourished under the Mongol dynasty is interesting. See also L. Binyon, Painting in the Far East (1908), pp. 75-7, 146-7. One of Chao Meng-fu's horse pictures, or rather a copy of it by a Japanese artist, is reproduced in Giles, op. cit., opposite p. 159. See also my notes on illustrations for an account of the famous landscape roll painted by him in the style ...
— Medieval People • Eileen Edna Power

... I'll grant that when they—they drink too much whiskey, they aren't exactly what you might call peaceable, desirable companions—though three-fourths of their antics then are caused by reckless high spirits rather than by real ugliness—with exceptions, of course. But when sober they are quiet, straightforward, generous-hearted good fellows, hard-working and honest; ...
— The Sunbridge Girls at Six Star Ranch • Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter

... the rather believe, by comparing the affectionate, lowly, humble epistles of S. Peter, S. James and S. John, whom we know were Fishers, with the glorious language and high Metaphors of S. Paul, ...
— The Compleat Angler - Facsimile of the First Edition • Izaak Walton

... occurred. One day, in the year that King Uzziah died, he wended his way, as he had done hundreds of times before, to the temple; and there that took place which altered the whole course of his life. Whether in the body or out of the body, we cannot tell, he saw three successive visions, or rather a threefold vision—a vision of God, a vision of sin, and a ...
— The Preacher and His Models - The Yale Lectures on Preaching 1891 • James Stalker

... Council of Nations - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - FLN 29, RND 12, MSP 3, RCD 1, independents 3, presidential appointees (unknown affiliation) 24; note - Council seating reflects the number of replaced council members rather ...
— The 2008 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... few bushes with muslin or burlap before the fruit ripens, and you can eat currants in August. Use hellebore, rather than Paris green, for the last brood of currant worms, and apply it as soon as the worms appear. There is little danger in using it, even if the ...
— Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) • L. H. Bailey

... of the subject has yet to be considered: Why should the doctrine that knowledge is sensation, in ancient times, or of sensationalism or materialism in modern times, be allied to the lower rather than to the higher view of ethical philosophy? At first sight the nature and origin of knowledge appear to be wholly disconnected from ethics and religion, nor can we deny that the ancient Stoics were materialists, or that the materialist doctrines prevalent in modern ...
— Theaetetus • Plato

... at "Tenby" now was a wagonette, with Mrs. Gowan and two such pretty, fashionable girls in it! And out came Hugh with a small portmanteau in his hand, and rather a better suit on than he generally wore, and certainly ...
— In the Mist of the Mountains • Ethel Turner

... first ten pages were written. The subject was entered upon with considerable flourishes, and some rather apt poetical quotations from a book containing a collection of poems; the river itself had already left its home in the mountain, and was careering merrily past sunny meadows and little rural, impossible cottages, ...
— A World of Girls - The Story of a School • L. T. Meade

... coast of Costa Rica. He was working about a sort of hotel, scrubbing and taking care of the horses; and I guess I shouldn't have paid any attention to him if I hadn't heard somebody say that he was an American; and it struck me as rather out of place that an American should be scrubbing round for those fellows, and I began to inquire about him. The landlord said that he was brought there sick, a good while ago, and was left for dead, but just as they were about to bury him he came to, and got up again after ...
— The Colossus - A Novel • Opie Read

... her. Mrs. Beecher thought that one volume would be enough just at first, but Mrs. Hunt Mortimer said that it was better to have a wide choice. Maude went home and told Frank in the evening. He was pleased, but rather sceptical. ...
— A Duet • A. Conan Doyle

... cabin we found the camp of the troops and we had just finished talking with Captain Lawton, who advised us to remain in his camp rather than risk staying alone in our cabin, when up rode the chief, Geronimo. He was mounted on a ...
— Geronimo's Story of His Life • Geronimo

... spring of 1779 the whole struggle in America was rather bare of events. The raids against Wyoming and Cherry Valley had roused the indignation of the Congress of the United States, and it had turned its attention energetically to the Indian races who were opposed to its rule. They must be crushed at all hazards. ...
— The War Chief of the Six Nations - A Chronicle of Joseph Brant - Volume 16 (of 32) in the series Chronicles of Canada • Louis Aubrey Wood

... autocracy—were forced upon it in the struggle for existence. Those who wish that Church history had been different are wishing the impossible, or wishing that the Church had perished. But this argument is not valid as a defence of a divine institution. It is rather a merciless exposure of what happens, and must happen, to a great idea when it is enslaved by an institution of its own creation. The political organisation which has grown up round the idea ends by strangling it, and continues to fight for its own preservation by ...
— Outspoken Essays • William Ralph Inge

... silence in the room seemed to give him some faint encouragement of sympathy, though it was rather the ...
— The Exiles and Other Stories • Richard Harding Davis

... agitation he awaited the coming of night, fully determined that if the worst came to the worst he would accept starvation and torture rather than submit to the cruel demands of Elinor Crouch. He would die before he would consent to become ...
— Her Weight in Gold • George Barr McCutcheon

... dust. All Europe combined against us in war could not do us half as much injury as your distilleries are doing every year. Oh, abandon them—tear them down—melt your boilers in the furnace—give your grain and molasses to the poor, or to the fowls of heaven—make fuel of your fruit-trees, rather than destroy your country. ...
— Select Temperance Tracts • American Tract Society

... torches. The mourners who rode behind did not escape so easily, for their long skirts and cloaks hindered them from moving, and Don Quixote struck and beat them just as he would, till they took him to be a giant or enchanter rather than a man. ...
— The Red Romance Book • Various

... that's worse than your former statement," he cried, rather ruefully now. "I suppose I do drift ...
— Janice Day at Poketown • Helen Beecher Long

... behold sick persons have their fears of death allayed, though the operation may but too often accelerate their dissolution. But our priests are so full of charity, and they interest themselves so greatly in the salvation of souls, that they like rather to risk their own health beside the sick bed of persons afflicted with the most contagious diseases, than lose the opportunity of administering their ...
— Letters to Eugenia - or, a Preservative Against Religious Prejudices • Baron d'Holbach

... joy and hymns of thanksgiving, for it was as a sudden relief from present death. Harassed by several weeks of incessant vigil and fighting, suffering from scarcity of provisions and almost continual thirst, they resembled skeletons rather than living men. It was a noble and gracious spectacle—the meeting of those hitherto inveterate foes, the duke of Medina Sidonia and the marques of Cadiz. At sight of his magnanimous deliverer the marques melted ...
— Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada • Washington Irving

... cattle and domestics feel its unpleasant consequences. This disease has obtained the name of the Cow Pox. It appears on the nipples of the Cows in the form of irregular pustules. At their first appearance they are commonly of a palish blue, or rather of a colour somewhat approaching to livid, and are surrounded by an erysipelatous inflammation. These pustules, unless a timely remedy be applied, frequently degenerate into phagedenic ulcers, which prove extremely troublesome[2]. The animals become indisposed, and ...
— An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae • Edward Jenner

... goodness knows"—she spoke scornfully—"but at least she mixes with her own kind and is on an equality with most she meets. When her work is over, however long it is, she can do just exactly as she likes until it starts again. A servant girl hasn't society or that liberty. For my part I'd rather live on bread again than be at the orders of any woman who despised me and not be able to call a single minute of time my own. They're so ignorant, most of these women who have servants, they don't know how to treat a girl any more than most ...
— The Workingman's Paradise - An Australian Labour Novel • John Miller

... challenge or some test. Why should it take such a flood of suggestion, such a luxury of acquaintance and contact, only to make superficial specimens? Why shouldn't the art of living inward a little more, and thereby of digging a little deeper or pressing a little further, rather modestly replace the enviable, always the enviable, young Briton's enormous range of alternatives in the way of question- begging movement, the way of vision and of non-vision, the enormous habit of holidays? If one could have made out once for all that holidays were proportionately and infallibly ...
— Letters from America • Rupert Brooke

... frustrated all along, first by her mother, then by her mother's preference for Jenny, finally (after a period during which she dominated the household after her mother's death) by Jenny herself. It was thus not upon a pleasant record of personal success that Emmy could look back, but rather upon a series of chagrins of which each was the harder to bear because of the history of its precursors. Emmy, between eighteen and nineteen at the time of her mother's death, had grasped her opportunity, and had made ...
— Nocturne • Frank Swinnerton

... morning after our dog-feast and peace-smoke, our party was up and off, and I was particularly glad to get away, feeling that I would rather camp out and feed on buffalo, antelope, jack-rabbits and wild turkey than dwell in the lodges of Kiowas and be "honored" with banquets of the nicest ...
— Thirty-One Years on the Plains and In the Mountains • William F. Drannan

... unusual name, which to him suggested the bright girl who had come into his life the night before. Not exactly into his life; it would be fairer to say she had touched the rim of his life. Perhaps she would never penetrate it further; Linder rather expected that would be the case. As for Drazk—she was in no danger from him. Drazk's methods were so precipitous that they could be ...
— Dennison Grant - A Novel of To-day • Robert Stead

... way through the flats of the Fenland, with their “crass air and rotten harrs,” to find its consolation in the “dimpling smiles,” but restless bosom, of the shallow “Boston Deeps.” During the period of that ancient alliance of these two streams the tract of country between Lincoln and Boston, or rather between the points now occupied by those places, would be scoured by a greatly-augmented volume of water, and this may possibly account in some degree for the shallowness of “The Wash,” and the number ...
— Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood - Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other Matter • J. Conway Walter

... vengeance, were supposed at length by the family to apply to Edward O'Connor, but excited pity rather than alarm. When, however, one morning, the dowager was nowhere to be found, and Ratty and the pistols had also disappeared, an inquiry was instituted as to the old lady's whereabouts, and Mount Eskar was one of the first places where she was sought, but without success; and all other inquiries ...
— Handy Andy, Vol. 2 - A Tale of Irish Life • Samuel Lover

... Queen said also: "I give you back your plighted word. I ride homeward to my husks, but you remain. Or rather, the Countess of Farrington departs for the convent of Ambresbury, disconsolate in her widowhood and desirous to have done with worldly affairs. It is most natural she should relinquish to her beloved and only brother all her dower-lands—or so at least Messire de Berners acknowledges. ...
— Chivalry • James Branch Cabell

... their reasons, you know. They thought they'd rather have a brainy nobleman like your brother than a good old rotter like ...
— Viviette • William J. Locke

... said) after that; and finally he had invented a creed and founded a sect of his own. It does not speak very well for the vaunted New England shrewdness and intelligence that near two hundred and fifty persons of all ages cast in their lot with him, or, rather, cast in their lots for him. He chartered a vessel, freighted it with provisions, seed for planting, agricultural implements and lumber for houses, and forthwith sailed for the Holy Land at the head of his followers, intending to sow and reap and prepare ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, September, 1878 • Various

... of land in the Archipelago is not greater than that contained by Western Europe from Hungary to Spain; but, owing to the manner in which the land is broken up and divided, the variety of its productions is rather in proportion to the immense surface over which the islands are spread, than to the quantity of ...
— The Malay Archipelago - Volume I. (of II.) • Alfred Russel Wallace

... he said, "or, rather, look upon me; look at my face, paler even than usual, and my eyes, red with weariness—for four days I have not closed them, for I have been constantly watching you, to protect and preserve you for Maximilian." ...
— The Count of Monte Cristo • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... in the middle of a meal, some desired but unlucky star would cross the prime vertical, and all hands had to go up on deck and shiver while rows of figures were accumulated. Sir William told us that he would rather shoot a star any time than all the game ever hunted. One night my secretary, after sitting on a rock at a movable table from 5 P.M. till midnight, came in, his joints almost creaking with cold, and loaded with a pile of figures which he assured us would crush ...
— A Labrador Doctor - The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason Grenfell • Wilfred Thomason Grenfell

... maybe, sometimes when Bertram is at the doctor's? He goes every Tuesday and Friday at three o'clock for treatment. I'd rather you came then for two reasons: first, because I don't want Bertram to know I'm learning, till I can play some; and, secondly, because—because I don't want to take you ...
— Miss Billy Married • Eleanor H. Porter

... General Macdonald, who succeeded to Championet; and, in consequence, was actually in possession of all the capital, except the castles of St. Elmo, Ovo, and Nuovo, the two latter of which were momentarily expected to fall. In this state of things, with many doubts respecting the firmness rather than the fidelity of the cardinal, and much apprehension with regard to the pernicious effects of the imposing plausibility of several chiefs of the numerous parties into which the distracted country ...
— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. II (of 2) • James Harrison

... and when it does get ripe it's easy pickin'. When old Dot-and-carry got to pokin' around in that hole this mornin' and come upon the chist bound with iron, after scrapin' away about a foot of dirt, he jest naturally concluded he'd rather be equal partners with Colonel Gid Ward than be with you what I explained he was ...
— The Skipper and the Skipped - Being the Shore Log of Cap'n Aaron Sproul • Holman Day

... Llangollen and which stands beneath a vast range of rocks at the head of the valley up which I had been coming, and which is called Glyndyfrdwy, or the valley of the Dee water. It was now about two o'clock, and feeling rather thirsty I went to an inn very appropriately called the Owen Glendower, being the principal inn in the principal town of what was once the domain of the great Owen. Here I stopped for about an hour refreshing ...
— Wild Wales - Its People, Language and Scenery • George Borrow

... rigid, dry as a desert; her voice was choked, suffocated in tears. But "Kiss me, at least; oh, kiss me!" was written on the whole imploring face, on the wildly quivering lips, in the burning, distracted eyes. But what use? Rather such a kiss, here, now, might bring an irremediable loss. In any case, the pain of parting after would be ten times intensified for us both. Could I then go? Would any force then be left in me? Would my will stand beyond a certain point? I did not know. It seemed the ...
— To-morrow? • Victoria Cross

... Highland-woman," he said, with a grave kindness. "Is it needful? I would rather see you as you ...
— Macleod of Dare • William Black

... at her amazedly, but did not recognize her. La Corriveau continued, "Your father is the Baron de St. Castin, and you, lady, would rather die than endure that he should find you in the Chateau of Beaumanoir. Ask me not how I know these things; you will not deny their truth; as for myself, I pretend not to be other ...
— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby

... writings (i. e. of the New Testament), lay concealed in the coffers of private churches, or persons, till the latter times of Trajan, or rather perhaps of Adrian; so that they could not come to the knowledge of the church. For if they had been published, they would have been overwhelmed under such a multitude as were then of apocryphal and suppositious books, that a new examination ...
— The Grounds of Christianity Examined by Comparing The New Testament with the Old • George Bethune English

... eastern side of the terrace, and also on the western side, the water which falls on the surface of the structure is discharged through rather pronounced depressions at these points. These depressions are not the work of running water, though doubtless emphasized by that agency, but represent low or open spaces in the original structure, probably passageways or gateways. Furthermore, before ...
— Casa Grande Ruin • Cosmos Mindeleff

... should go per bus a little ways into the country and take tea at a very decent house of entertainment. Now, near that house of entertainment there's a piece of water. At tea, my prisoner got up to fetch her pocket handkercher from the bedroom where the bonnets was; she was rather a long time gone and came back a little out of wind. As soon as they came home this was reported to me by Mrs. Bucket, along with her observations and suspicions. I had the piece of water dragged by moonlight, in presence of a couple of our ...
— Bleak House • Charles Dickens

... of the question, mamma. No, not for the world could I marry a business man! I will not have one! I would rather jump into the water than marry one! [Crying, she gives the money back.] Take it back! What do I need it for now? Why should I go out and make purchases? For whom, then? [Takes off her mantle, flings her parasol aside, sits down on the sofa and ...
— Armenian Literature • Anonymous

... numbers of boys, or rather young men, rambling among these fields, ready to bandy jokes with any one, and particularly ready to enter into conversation with the girls, who, however, held themselves aloof, not in a shy, but rather in an independent way, ...
— Mary Barton • Elizabeth Gaskell

... machinations of their priests. They never can be persuaded to answer "Yes" to certain questions of their confessors. They would prefer to be thrown into the flames, and burnt to ashes with the Brahmin widows, rather than to allow the eyes of a man to pry into the sacred sanctuary of their souls. Though sometimes guilty before God, and under the impression that their sins will never be forgiven if not confessed, the laws of decency ...
— The Priest, The Woman And The Confessional • Father Chiniquy

... introductory Chapter the reader will find the aim and object of these studies set forth at length. In view of the importance and complexity of the problems involved it seemed better to incorporate such a statement in the book itself, rather than relegate it to a Preface which all might not trouble to read. Yet I feel that such a general statement does not adequately express my ...
— From Ritual to Romance • Jessie L. Weston

... neither hunter nor warrior, and whose want of qualifications would have ensured his rejection by families of ordinary note—how much more from that of a proud and haughty chief! Love conquers the strongest; and, rather than be separated, those who love each other well will dare every danger. Rather than be torn apart, the fond pair, whose affections were strengthened by the pledge of love which Tatoka bore about her, determined to fly the anger of the father. ...
— Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 (of 3) • James Athearn Jones

... of all others that is given oftenest: 'Do justice and judgment.' That's your Bible order; that's the 'service of God.' The one divine work—the one ordered sacrifice—is to do justice; and it is the last we are ever inclined to do. Anything rather than that! As much charity as you choose, but no justice. 'Nay,' you will say, 'charity is greater than justice.' Yes, it is greater; it is the summit of justice; it is the temple of which justice is the foundation. But you can't have the ...
— The Arena - Volume 18, No. 92, July, 1897 • Various

... her sister's conscious looks and evasive replies. Could it actually be possible that Lesbia had abstracted this money? She was rather silly, flighty, and irresponsible, but she had always been truthful and honourable. No, it was surely absolutely foreign to her character! Then where had she obtained half a guinea to buy a new tennis racket? And what was the reason of her extreme ...
— The Youngest Girl in the Fifth - A School Story • Angela Brazil

... Dyck, at whose shrine Reynolds worshiped, Reynolds was coldly diplomatic in his relations with his sitters. He talked but little, because he could not hear, and to hold an ear-trumpet and paint with both hands is rather difficult. On the moment when the sitting was over, the patron was bowed out. The good ladies who lay in wait with love's lariat never found an opportunity to make ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 4 (of 14) - Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Painters • Elbert Hubbard

... eastern seaboard of Asia, from Siam to Kamtchatka. In Japan it is called Shintoism. The word "Shinto" means literally "the way of the gods," and the letter of its name is a true exponent of the spirit of the belief. For its scriptures are rather an itinerary of the gods' lives than a guide to that road by which man himself may attain to immortality. Thus with a certain fitness pilgrimages are its most noticeable rites. One cannot journey anywhere in the heart of Japan without meeting ...
— The Soul of the Far East • Percival Lowell

... hold that the Lord is pure 'Being' only, for such 'Being' is admitted to be an element of the Lord; and moreover all 'Being' has difference. Nor can it be maintained that the Lord's connexion with all his auspicious qualities—knowledge, bliss, and so on—is occasional (adventitious) merely; it rather is essential and hence eternal. Nor may you avail yourself of certain texts—viz. 'His high power (sakti) is revealed as manifold, as essential, and (so) his knowledge, strength and action' (Svet. Up. VI, 8); ...
— The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja - Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48 • Trans. George Thibaut

... and removed him from the London school, where in truth he had made but very little progress in the humaner letters. The lad was placed with a professor who prepared young men for the army, and received rather a better professional education than fell to the lot of most young soldiers of his day. He cultivated the mathematics and fortification with more assiduity than he had ever bestowed on Greek and Latin, and especially made such a progress ...
— The Newcomes • William Makepeace Thackeray

... imitated, but nothing of the negro, not even the characteristic, undulating walk. Perhaps, after all, he was only a practical joker, and during the whole day, Monsieur de Vargnes took refuge in that view, which rather wounded his dignity as a man of consequence, but which appeased ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume IV (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant

... I would rather that my soul be returned unto God than that I should fall into the hands of ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... nights the "Flitter" steamed westward into the Atlantic, with her temporary owner locked into his stateroom. The confinement was irksome, but he rather liked the sensation of being interested in something besides money. He frequently laughed to himself over the absurdity of the situation. His enemies were friends, true and devoted; his gaolers were relentless ...
— Brewster's Millions • George Barr McCutcheon

... fooled lots of people. Gustavo doesn't understand, and Giuseppe, you noticed, looked rather dazed. Then there's ...
— Jerry Junior • Jean Webster

... down. He looked at the bright, reddish face of the other man, at the narrow brow and the very bright eyes, and at the rather sensual lips that unrolled wide and expansive under the black cropped moustache. How curious it was that this was a human being! What Brangwen thought himself to be, how meaningless it was, confronted with the reality of him. Birkin could see only a strange, inexplicable, ...
— Women in Love • D. H. Lawrence

... a population evenly balanced between the white and black, had passed through the unusual crisis of bad crops and the invasion of the boll weevil. The migration from this point, therefore, was at first a relief to the city rather than a loss. The negroes, in the beginning, therefore, moved into the Delta and out to Arkansas until the call for laborers in the North. The migration from this point to the North reached its height in the winter and spring of 1916 and 1917. The migrants would say that they were ...
— Negro Migration during the War • Emmett J. Scott

... The Dean smiled rather uneasily at Jimmy Benyon; Mrs. Baxter detected the smile, but was not disturbed. She shook her ...
— Quisante • Anthony Hope

... are right," replied Apollonius, "but it seemed to us that he was bitter in discussion. His eyes are gloomy rather than gay." ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... things; first, that she was telling the truth without concealing anything, and, secondly, that Mr. Lanning was likely to marry a very charming but rather exacting young woman. When I said so to Quarles he annoyed me by remarking that some women were capable of making lies sound much ...
— The Master Detective - Being Some Further Investigations of Christopher Quarles • Percy James Brebner

... a little, and his first impressions. All the time he was trying to grasp the identity of the woman speaking with the woman he had parted from in Canada. Something surely had gone? This restrained and rather cold person was not the Elizabeth of the Rockies. He watched her when she turned from him to her other guests; her light impersonal manner towards the younger men, with its occasional touch of satire; the friendly relation between ...
— Lady Merton, Colonist • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... mismanagement, who have made no mistake? Or does my ambition annoy thee? But wouldst thou fain hold in thine arms a fair woman, forgetting discretion and honor? Evil pleasures belong to an evil man. But if I, having before resolved ill, have changed to good counsel, am I mad? Rather art thou [mad,] who, having lost a bad wife, desirest to recover her, when God has well prospered thy fortune. The nuptial-craving suitors in their folly swore the oath to Tyndarus, but hope, I ween, was their God, and wrought this more than thyself and thy strength. Whom taking[27] make ...
— The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I. • Euripides

... I had been talking horse when he came in; a sort of talk I rather like myself, for I consait I know a considerable some about it, and ain't above getting a wrinkle from others when I can. "Well," sais I, "Capting, we was a talking about horses ...
— Nature and Human Nature • Thomas Chandler Haliburton

... Matho dicere—dic aliquando Et bene, dic neutrum, dic aliquando male.' The first is rather more than mortal can do; The second may be sadly done or gaily; The third is still more difficult to stand to; The fourth we hear, and see, and say too, daily. The whole together is what I could wish To serve in ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron

... Erskine. "That's John Castellan's combined airship and submarine right enough, and that was an aerial torpedo. If it had hit us when we were above water, we should have been where those French chaps are now. You're quite right, this sort of naval warfare is getting rather exciting." ...
— The World Peril of 1910 • George Griffith

... We have here rather a curious mode of challenge. The parties cut a quantity of straw, each taking a half, and then retire to the Dempster Gardens to test their strength. Forms of challenge vary much. There is the gentlemanly way ...
— The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 1875 • Various

... with a strange, slumbering fire, the colourless cheeks, the vigorous set of the lips, these made an effect on all who came in contact with the banker which was of a not wholly comfortable nature. It was as if you were talking to a statue rather than ...
— The Chestermarke Instinct • J. S. Fletcher

... Her tone, pitched rather higher than usual, carried to the ears of the players who were changing ends at the moment. Both of the men glanced at her. Stillwell's face showed swift gratitude. On Jack's face the shadow darkened but except for a slight straightening of the line of his lips he gave ...
— To Him That Hath - A Novel Of The West Of Today • Ralph Connor



Words linked to "Rather" :   instead, kind of, sort of, sooner, preferably, quite, kinda



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